How the Foothills Philharmonic Brings Harmony to Okotoks

What does it take to build a thriving music scene in a growing town? For Tim Korthuis, it starts with passion, community, and a whole lot of harmony. 

Carlin Lutzer sits down with Tim Korthuis — a lifelong Okotokian, musician, and co-founder of the Foothills Philharmonic Society — to explore how a simple love for choral music turned into a powerhouse cultural organization. 

Tim shares the journey from a single choir to a multi-ensemble society that now includes jazz groups, orchestras, youth choirs, and even an opera chorus. 

Along the way, the two discuss Okotoks' growth, the importance of respectful dialogue, and how the arts can bring people together across differences. 

It’s a conversation about music, community, and the quiet impact of showing up — one note at a time.

Listen for:

• 6:07 How did a kid from Saskatoon end up building a music empire in Okotoks?
• 10:48 What exactly is the Foothills Philharmonic Society—and how big is it?
• 16:25 Can you still join one of the choirs or is it too late?
• 26:59 How does the Philharmonic model respectful dialogue in a divided world?

Connect with Guest: Tim Korthuis, Worship Pastor, Conductor, Accompanist, Performer

Website | LinkedIn | Okotoks Alliance Church| Facebook

Connect with Carlin

Email | Website | LinkedIn | Facebook 

Transcript

Announcer (00:00):

Welcome to the Okotoks Podcast, where the stories are as solid as the Big Rock, sponsored by Carlin Lutzer Real Estate.

Carlin Lutzer (00:20):

Welcome to the Okotoks Podcast. I'm your host, Carlin Lutzer. To start off the episode, I want to extend a big congratulations to Mayor Tanya Thorn on her second term as Mayor of Okotoks. To the counselors who are stepping down, thank you for your service commitment and the time you've dedicated to making Okotoks a better place to live. And to everyone who ran for mayor or council this election, thank you for putting yourself out there. I know that running takes a toll mentally, physically, and financially, and was truly difficult deciding who to vote for this time. We have so many people who genuinely care about this town. In this week's episode, I'm joined by Tim Korthuis, the musical director of the Foothills, Philharmonic Society. Tim's passion for music teaching and community shines through as we talk about this journey, the growth of Okotoks and the importance of respectful discourse, especially during times of local change.

(01:22):

If you'd like to get involved or catch up on upcoming concerts of the Foothills, Philharmonic, please go to foothills Philharmonic.com, and some of their amazing events like this will be included like November 22nd, swing into Christmas, December 6th, winter Wonderland, and Friday December 12th, and Saturday December 13th, Northern Lights and sounds of joy. Please go back to Foothills Philharmonic for dates and times for these events. Now let's dive into my conversation with Tim. Tim, we've been planning this for a while, and it's my fault that the scheduling and everything, but I do thank you for joining me today.

Tim Korthuis (02:05):

Yeah, my pleasure. Yeah, it's awesome.

Carlin Lutzer (02:07):

Now, I feel that you probably have one of the best beards in Okotoks. Is that some kind of title that you have or is that just kind of my opinion?

Tim Korthuis (02:18):

I've seen bigger ones in town, and we see each other regularly enough that we don't know each other, but we go the

Carlin Lutzer (02:26):

Oh, is that right? So guys with big beards are kind of like guys on motorbikes. They wave to each other. People on motorbikes all wave to guys with big beards. You give each other a nod.

Tim Korthuis (02:36):

Yeah, yeah. And sometimes they'll just be like, your beard looks well conditioned. What do you do?

Carlin Lutzer (02:42):

Oh, really? You for,

Tim Korthuis (02:44):

Well, Toby,

Carlin Lutzer (02:44):

Yeah. So what do you do?

Tim Korthuis (02:47):

It's like a train in Le too. People will just come up and start rubbing your face, and I'm like, I don't know who you are, but let's hope this moment's over quick.

Carlin Lutzer (02:53):

No, seriously. People touch your beard.

Tim Korthuis (02:55):

Oh yeah.

Carlin Lutzer (02:55):

I wouldn't like that. No, that's interesting. I didn't know that. I didn't know that about beard people. So just for the beard people that maybe are seeing this on video or you're getting comments that your beard is well conditioned, this is not a product placement. We are not sponsored yet by any, we're not endorsed yet, but maybe the company that you use to condition your beard maybe will consider sponsoring us after

Tim Korthuis (03:24):

I'm the worst. I don't even know what I use. It's pretty much when it runs out, my wife buys me more stuff and I go, this one's great, and it has a squirrel on the front of it. That's all I know.

Carlin Lutzer (03:36):

Oh, and it's special beard stuff, like you got to buy a certain type of conditioner for your beard. Okay, interesting.

Tim Korthuis (03:42):

Yeah, totally. And I got to be careful with that. Some of 'em have nuts, and my family's allergic to nuts, and I like my wife to kiss me. So

Carlin Lutzer (03:49):

Yeah, that could be a little interesting if she's allergic to nuts. Well, Tim, you are a man of many trades. In fact, before we got rolling here, you felt the need to hide the Skillsoft from behind your view here, so it's not just with tools, but you're also a very well-schooled performing musician.

Tim Korthuis (04:22):

Thank you. Yeah. Yeah. I do bunch on things with music early on, figured out. That's the thing I'm good at. Let's stick with that.

Carlin Lutzer (04:30):

Yeah, no, that's fantastic. So let's back up a little bit more, because when we were talking before, we found out that we had something in common and we are both born in Saskatchewan.

Tim Korthuis (04:41):

Absolutely. Yeah, that's right. Saskatoon. I lived there for five years and my parents moved here, and then I've been in Okotoks ever since then for, or that is 40 ish years. I don't counting.

Carlin Lutzer (04:54):

No. And only good people come out of Saskatchewan, and there's certainly, there's a lot of people from Saskatchewan in Okotoks. We see a lot of those rider fans go riders. I'm actually don't tell anybody. I'm not a writer fan anymore. I know I'm going to be judged. I'm probably going to be excommunicated as a person.

Tim Korthuis (05:17):

Yeah, don't put your address

Carlin Lutzer (05:18):

On here, that's for sure. Well, I could probably have a whole podcast as to why I chose not to be a writer fan anymore. But anyways, we won't get into that today because we want people listening, but we probably lost our viewership since I said I don't cheer for the Riders anymore, but we

Tim Korthuis (05:36):

Definitely lost a couple viewers at that point, for sure.

Carlin Lutzer (05:38):

Probably at least 75% of Okotoks Saskatchewan people. But yeah, there's a ton here. It's weird. I know, absolutely. That Noyer fans, that could be a whole nother

Tim Korthuis (05:46):

Podcast. It'd be interesting how many people Okotoks are not Rough Rider fans. Oiler fans or from the uk.

Carlin Lutzer (05:53):

Yes, right. There wouldn't be anybody left. Yeah. Well, Tim, how long have you lived in, so you were born and raised in Saskatoon, and then when did you move to Okotoks?

Tim Korthuis (06:07):

I was in kindergarten. I remember, well, not remember remember, but I remember being kindergarten ish here or in grade one, at least at Percy LER School. So yeah, I think I'm 46. I'm either that or 47 1 2. So it'll be just over 40 years that I've been here in town.

Carlin Lutzer (06:29):

Yeah, no doubt. You and your family have seen tons of changes going from an actual town, I would imagine when you arrived. It was probably under the town limit of, I'm just guessing, under 10,000. And now we've exceeded 32,000. So then you've kind of been all over the place. You have a masters of music in choral conducting a bachelor's degree in piano performance.

Tim Korthuis (07:01):

Yeah.

Carlin Lutzer (07:03):

What other instruments do you play? Obviously you play piano, you sing.

Tim Korthuis (07:06):

Yeah. Here at the church, we got modern band set up, and I generally will play anything to fill in. I regularly will leave from acoustic guitar. This past week I played bass. Next week I'm playing drums. I don't play lead guitar, but, but I put myself on the schedule for a month from now instead. All right. You're going to play lead guitar, so you have a month to learn.

Carlin Lutzer (07:31):

Right. For sure.

Tim Korthuis (07:32):

So just kind of shoving myself down that path.

(07:36):

And in terms of how many instruments you play, there's a certain point, and I don't want this come across as arrogant or whatever, but there's a certain point where learning an instrument is literally just kind of, okay, where are all the things that I know found on this instrument and how do I make a sound? And then it's just kind of like once you do that, then learning the instrument is really quick, just kind of like, how do I make my notes, oh, like this, and I make a sound like this. And then the rest of it, the scale, and you're like, okay, this is how I make a play a whatever on this instrument. Yeah. I taught band for a couple years and generally learned how to play a decent melody on most instruments. Yeah,

Carlin Lutzer (08:21):

Yeah. No, well, back in the day I played violin and yeah, no, but that's been many days. In fact, the last time somebody asked me to bring out the violin, and we sounded, this was probably, let's say, I'm going to say like 20, 20 years ago, somebody asked us to, and then we were going to perform, and I was so nervous. We sounded really good in practice. So the last time that I actually performed in front of a group of people, I was so nervous, Tim, that my bow bouncing on the string, that was awful. So I've never played violin again in public. Right. So lost that. Well, yeah, but no,

Tim Korthuis (09:05):

You always pick it up again. We got an orchestra that's always looking for strings.

Carlin Lutzer (09:07):

Is that right? Yeah. And as a kid, that was the part that I loved the most was the orchestra. That was pretty phenomenal. Playing Ina Kleer was my favorite. Yes,

Tim Korthuis (09:19):

Ina Kle knocked music.

Carlin Lutzer (09:20):

Yes. It was a lot of fun. And so then now you are the co-founder of the Foothills Philharmonic Society?

Tim Korthuis (09:32):

Yes. Yeah, indeed.

Carlin Lutzer (09:33):

Okay, first, let's really dumb it down for me. When you say Philharmonic, what does that mean?

Tim Korthuis (09:41):

So when we were choosing the name, we're like, oh, do we call it a symphonic or blah, blah, blah, and we didn't want to kind of misrepresent. We're like, okay, what do these words technically mean? And let's not portray ourselves as something we're not. And the Philharmonic literally is defined as for the love of Harmony,

(10:00):

And it doesn't have any specific larger context than that. So we're kind of tossed around Rocky Mountain Group now, Okotoks, no, we want to be larger than that Foothills. And then we wanted to shoot for the Stars from a quality perspective, so we wanted to see if Call ourselves Philharmonic or something. And then that term just made sense for us of Photos Philharmonic Society. And even when we started, we just started the Photos Philharmonic Chorus. That was what we started. We had planned to do that, and then it just, things started erupting and we're like, oh, we got to be bigger than that society, call ourselves that. And that was a couple of years in and we started adding all these things.

Carlin Lutzer (10:47):

Okay.

Tim Korthuis (10:48):

Yeah.

Carlin Lutzer (10:48):

Okay. So is that just voices or is that also stringed instruments, or is it whatever you want it to be, that harmonizes?

Tim Korthuis (10:57):

Yeah, technically it just allows us to encompass whatever it is we want musically to be inside of there. We start with the chorus, then we built a Chamber chorus, which is a smaller group, more advanced music. Then we added jazz, vocal jazz group. And then the Okotoks Men's Chorus joined our organization. So there's a men's choir. We started as well, an orchestra, and they've been highly successful as well. So we've got that group going with us, and we started an opera chorus in partnership with Calgary concert opera company. And our newest edition is the Junior singers that by one of our long-term singers who was with us, he and another vocalists started a group for Kids, foot Philharmonic, junior singers, and now we're chatting about putting all the things in place to start a youth choir as well.

Carlin Lutzer (11:52):

Okay. That's way more than I thought. I thought you guys were maybe just one choir and that was it. But that's unbelievable everything you guys have going on. So what does a regular year look like? What are you working towards? Is there some kind of concert that you're looking at putting on here in the next little while? What does an average year look like for you, Tim?

Tim Korthuis (12:15):

We now have to do a planning. We do a planning thing in the kind of summer to go, all right, where are our concerts? Let's not do 'em at the same time. Let's not exhaust people. Keep a couple of weeks between things as much as possible for the course. So I conduct the chorus in the chamber choir, and we have other directors for other groups for the chorus. Our concert coming up is December 13th and 14th, I think around that Friday, if you go to Foothills Hill, monic.com, you'll have all the information there. But yeah, that'll be for Chorus and orchestra are performing there. Chamber choir is performing on October 25th with our orchestra. Junior singers are sometime in the end of November, and vocal jazz and Men's Chorus. I think it's in November as well. I can't recall exactly. Then our chamber choir has a concert in February, and I think we have something in every month, February, March, April, may, June as well.

(13:19):

And yeah, just flavor, there's a flavor for everyone or vocal. Jazz has a lot of pop tunes and jazz stuff, and just really tight harmonies and it sounds really great. Choir does some older stuff, some newer stuff, some classic barbershop type of stuff. And really exciting. This year we've seen additions to every group. Every group has a brand new people join, and it kind of feels like a year where post COVID just constantly felt like up to this year. I know COVID feels like a long time ago. We're rebuilding constantly. Our numbers still aren't as high as they were before, but we're doing, our numbers are doing great and we're adding more and more, but this is the first season where it really feels like we're not going, does this work? Do people want, is this okay? What? It just felt like it was hard to put something together you were just excited about moving toward. And now everyone's on fire and just stoked about making music. And we got our concert in December's called Northern Lights, Northern Lights and Joyful Sounds, I think. And we got a lot of music by Scandinavian composers and Olelo and Eric Sesal and a couple other folks like that. And it's just gorgeous harmonies. And yeah, we sing in English most of the time, but there'll be some Latin and some Norwegian and all that stuff.

Carlin Lutzer (14:46):

Yeah. And where do you guys perform this? I believe it's December 13th and 14th, but where do you perform

Tim Korthuis (14:56):

Most of the time we perform here at Okotoks Alliance Church.

Carlin Lutzer (15:00):

Okay.

Tim Korthuis (15:01):

I've got that double hat going here with the FPS, so I always make sure to say to the board constantly, I'm not pushing that we have to do things here. I think it's a great facility for these reasons, but if it's more efficient or effective to go elsewhere, I'm all for that. I just want, this is what's best for the society. So you kind of got that double thing going on there.

Carlin Lutzer (15:28):

Yeah. No, that's awesome. And do you buy tickets for that? Can you buy the tickets online already, or not quite yet?

Tim Korthuis (15:35):

No, not quite yet. Online tickets will be up pretty soon, and I know for the orchestra concert, it should be up in the next couple of days or so. But tickets can generally be sold at the door. Pre COVID, we were selling out all the time post COVID. We haven't quite reached that, but we've been full most of the time. So generally you can buy tickets at the door, but hopefully you can't.

Carlin Lutzer (16:01):

Yeah, yeah. No, absolutely. Hopefully. Yeah, for sure. Well, I've certainly seen your posters out there. I know that you were certainly looking for people in the fall. You were looking for singers. Are you kind of at the point where you've now passed the time where people can't join or is there still a little bit of a window if they know what they're doing, they can join?

Tim Korthuis (16:25):

Yeah, depends kind of on the ensemble as well. For Chamber choir, which is more advanced stuff, you have to do a pretty chamber choir and vocal jazz. You have to do an audition to just make sure that you're going to be able to sing well and not go crazy. It might seem like it's a keep people out. It's more of a, if you're not ready, you're going to go crazy. You're going to be so stressed if you're not ready to sing with the group. Chorus and Men's Chorus are generally open to everyone, but as kind of the season goes on, you definitely want to go, alright, if someone goes four weeks before the concert, oh, I'd love to join. Sometimes you just kind of meet with them and see what level they're at and be like, maybe it's next season so your brains don't explode. Trying to learn all this in three weeks.

Carlin Lutzer (17:15):

Right, absolutely. I remember it was quite a few years ago. Again, we are seeing COVID a lot here. I think it was Pre COVID, you and a few other gentlemen, while I was doing some pre-Christmas meal grocery shopping, you guys dropped in at Sobey's and it was fantastic. You guys were walking away, walking around the store. Well, the thing that I know, it's like you guys were phenomenal and I was following you around the store, people get really awkward in moments like that. They don't know what to do when people are singing. But you guys sound, I just thought that was a great thing that you guys did. I imagine you were pushing, you were trying to get some support. It was no doubt, foothills, Philharmonic that you decided to do that. And it was absolutely fantastic.

Tim Korthuis (18:12):

And we have to plan it. It's usually been the men's course, who's done that? But yeah, we'll kind of talk it through and be like, alright, so don't stand in the aisle. Let's kind like make sure you position yourself so people don't have to try to get around you. It's like we stay out of people's way, we're like, or else we're going to annoy the owners of the store. And you make sure to check with the owner, make sure they're cool with it, and they always

Carlin Lutzer (18:39):

Oh, yeah, yeah.

Tim Korthuis (18:40):

But yeah, we're always very intentional about don't disrupt the flow. And some people are smiling and some people are like,

Carlin Lutzer (18:49):

Yeah, yeah, they just don't know what to do. Yeah. Well, I know it is a great promotion. I remember years ago seeing guys, they were performing in Sylvan Lake and they were walking around a grocery store in Sylvan Lake playing. They had the upright bass, they had a little drum, then someone was playing a guitar, but they were walking around singing the theme song from Cincinnati, WKRP. It was class.

Tim Korthuis (19:19):

Yeah,

Carlin Lutzer (19:23):

I Free Tim. Oh yeah. And they're phenomenal. I'll find it and I'll send it to you, but it's worth the watch. Right. Those guys were fantastic, but very similar to what you guys did there that day, and it was Sobeys. That was fantastic. So yeah, Tim, just as you have been an Okotokian for quite some time, what are the things you like? What are the things, are there things that are making you nervous? What are your overall thoughts in regards to Okotoks?

Tim Korthuis (19:58):

I'm one of those people where I generally try to see the silver lining on things. I know lots of people who are, oh, it's getting too big. We got to keep it small. And my brain generally goes, how would you do that? People, it's growing because it's awesome. So to make it not grow, I guess you make it less awesome,

(20:23):

Then we don't want to be here. And so the unfortunate reality is when you have a town like ours, which I believe there's always going to be issues, but I believe our mayor and counselors in generally always have been doing a pretty good job of just improving it year after year after year, and making things more beautiful and more fun. I think they do a great job, and I'm not saying they're perfect, but yeah, I just kind of look around. I'm like, yeah, it was this before and that was nice, but now it's this, I'd rather it be a growing great town than they tried to do the population cap years ago. And even as a teenager, I was going, I don't know how that works. That doesn't seem to make sense to me. And then as soon as we reached it, they're like, oh, that doesn't work. And they pick it off.

Carlin Lutzer (21:18):

Yeah, exactly.

Tim Korthuis (21:20):

It was kind of like, well, yeah, it was great. And then people were like, oh, I'll move to High River. I'm like, okay, but then all people are moving to High River now. It's going to be bigger. So it's the same thing. I get it. It was a beautiful time when it was smaller and everything, but I think our town's trying to keep that community, and I'm excited about what the future of our town slash city is going to be. I've often kind of considered, I'm like, should I go into politics? I'm like, I don't think I can watch my face enough. Some of us say something, I'll be like,

Carlin Lutzer (21:59):

Yeah,

Tim Korthuis (22:00):

I know that's, that's not going to go well.

Carlin Lutzer (22:02):

No. Yeah,

Tim Korthuis (22:05):

Represent Jesus. Well, I can't.

Carlin Lutzer (22:06):

Yeah, for sure. No, well, even just with this podcast, I, you're putting yourself out there. I'm not comparing myself to a politician, but you do put yourself out there and you're putting yourself out there for anytime you go on social media, putting yourself out there for criticism. I've gotten some negative feedback about my podcast and Oh, yeah, yeah. And I realized my skin's not very thick, and I'm just like, but good for those politics politicians that don't respond, that don't engage, or they engage to a point and they keep it professional, right. Because yeah,

Tim Korthuis (22:45):

Absolutely. And I see that on our social medias. Someone raises a question or someone gets angry, and then you see a calm response, just kind of giving the facts. And then at that point, if they continue getting upset, you can just see them go, those are the facts.

Carlin Lutzer (22:59):

Thank you. And that's the biggest thing, is just being able to present the facts and social media. There's no tone, right? There's no tone.

Announcer (23:07):

Yeah.

Carlin Lutzer (23:08):

Body language, even you and me talking right now, we can see each other. We have body language, kind of get a feel for what they're thinking. But somebody types something, it's hard to gauge their tone. So I wouldn't want to be a politician. We got a lot of great people that are running, some of them are going to get in, some of them, but everybody, the common denominator is the love that people have for this town. And I think we've all moved here for a reason. I get a little bit of a chuckle out of people that have just moved here and they're like, let's close it up. Close the door. We're in. I made it. So no, we got to. But yeah, I think it's just as long as the growth is

(23:57):

Managed properly, and yeah, there is going to be some growing pains, there is some awkward moments. And I dunno, I guess something I've been thinking about is, I know we love calling it a town. It's not a town, but I wonder if we get stuck in that. If we call ourselves a town, the baby of the family, everybody's always, oh, he's just the baby. He's now 13 and we're still babying him or whatever. You wonder if there's a little bit of a mind shift change that could take place if we ditch the town no longer, call ourselves a town, and now we become a city. I wonder if just that mentality may change a little bit. And I don't know. That's just something I've been thinking about lately. But yeah, it should be interesting to see what transpires here in,

Tim Korthuis (24:54):

We had the mayor debate forum here at the church last week, and I did tech sort of things for it, and you could see there's some differences of opinion and some arguments and stuff like that. And I'm always one of those people, when you see politics in general, politicians, when you see people, oh, so-and-so wants to destroy the province, I'm like, no, they don't. They might suck at their job, but there's a great saying, don't attribute to malevolence that which can be explained through incompetence. I'm like, you might disagree with Trudeau or Poly or blah, blah, blah, but in general, pretty confident they're doing what they think is best for Canada. They just stuck at it. Yeah,

Carlin Lutzer (25:37):

Yeah. Or they're just not going about it the way that you think they should

Tim Korthuis (25:45):

Kind of put the card where it is. It's like, it's not evil. I think there are certain politicians that are evil, but they're neighbors to the South, but I won't go into that.

Carlin Lutzer (25:54):

That's a whole podcast name and title in and of itself, as opposed to just one episode, Tim. So no, I know just the state of the world, we're at a very interesting place, but wouldn't it be great if we could build a community that is able to agree to disagree, but to keep the discourse going, right. Let's call it as it is. Some of the crap that I've seen on Facebook, people calling people out, whether yeah, and calling politicians out for things that they've done wrong, as opposed to, like you said, just present the facts. Here's the facts, let's move forward, but let's keep the conversation going as opposed to shutting her down. And I think if we could do that as a town, you want to keep the small town feel. That's how you do it, folks. You keep conversations rolling. You agree to disagree. Okay, we have a difference of opinion, but I'm arguing with somebody that loves Okotoks just as much as I do. Right? Totally.

Tim Korthuis (26:59):

That's actually something that always excites me about the Photos Philharmonic Society. You do religious music, but in a specific vein from a historical educational standpoint, and as a pastor on our board at the Photos Philharmonic, we have Christians, atheists, we have straight transgender, gay, just everyone of different mindsets and thought practices, and I'll often put together a set of music and just say, Hey, does this seem too preachy? I'm like, is this getting, and they'll give me their honest feedback. And we have great conversations about religion and life, and one of my good friends on the board, she's a nurse, and I have, being in the Christian world, I have some people who are very, very left and some are very right, and people saying, abortion is this, and other people are going, it's this. And I go to my friend who, she's not a Christian, I'm like, what is true about this?

(28:07):

And then we have a great conversation and she gives some wisdom to that. Am I able to part that on to other people? And I'm like, we can have a disagreement about what it is, but we can still love each other. And I've been able to have phenomenal relationships and friendships with all these people who there's very fundamental things we might disagree on. I'm like, but the love for people love respect for respect for humanity, all that fun stuff. It's just, it's a great organization to be part of because everyone in general, if you don't like those things, you don't stay long because you get annoyed that we do like those things.

Carlin Lutzer (28:44):

Yes, for sure. And that's where we've said it time and time again, and me diving into this podcast has certainly opened my eyes at the advantage of municipal politics where you have to bring people together. You bring many different people. We're voting in six counselors and a mayor, and all these people have difference of opinions, and they have to come together and work together and vote, and either they agree or disagree and they move on as opposed to the dissension. I believe that has caused provincially and federally because they don't have to work with the opposition if they've got the majority. But Tim, yes, Tim, I appreciate you. We will promote what we need to when we need to help you guys out. I look forward to coming to December 13th and 14th. Yeah, thanks for what you do. Thanks for what you do in this town. You certainly didn't mention it, but I see you receive, the CON is called KPI Award. Conspirator

Tim Korthuis (29:56):

Award, yes. Yeah, conspiratorial Award. It's assigned, given, I don't know the right word for that. Bestowed I guess by Choir Alberta, which is a province-wide organization that promotes choral activities, and then they nominate people every year for contributions to choral activities in the province. And then Matt Ellis at the Composite High School, he leads the ensemble and they're literally provincially and internationally, I think internationally provincially for sure, award-winning, phenomenal group. And I get to do choir camps with them and stuff, and he nominated me. And then it was cool because on the selection committee where all these people just topnotch conductors, and I'm one of those guys who's constantly looks sitting in the mirror and I'm just like, I'm a 12-year-old boy. He's going to believe I should do this. It's just constant imposter syndrome. And then to get selected for that as, and they've select, I think two, maybe two or three people a year for that. And the people they've selected are the people I study all the time, like Tim Sch with the Calgary Phil and or who used to be with Calgary, Phil and Spirit two, and Leonard Graff at the U of A, and these were people who I chatted with, and they kind of looked me up and they're like, yeah, this guy seems like he fits. And I was like, oh, okay. We're just doing music and we're loving music. They're like, yeah, great. Thanks for what you do. I was like, okay. Yeah, that's

Carlin Lutzer (31:33):

Awesome.

Tim Korthuis (31:33):

Constantly thinking someone's going to be coming and be like, you don't really know what you're doing. I'll be like, I don't.

Carlin Lutzer (31:38):

Exactly. No, that's awesome, man. Well, Tim, it's people like you that make this town so great. Town, city. I know we talked about that, but it's, and having something like this that just adds such a dimension to the town, a level, a depth is fantastic, and I look forward to seeing some of the performances coming up here very soon.

Tim Korthuis (32:04):

Absolutely. We'd love to have you out, and you can come sing or play some violin if you want as well.

Carlin Lutzer (32:10):

You boot me out the first time we had to play in front of people.

Tim Korthuis (32:16):

If you ever want to pick it up again, there's a place for you.

Carlin Lutzer (32:19):

Yeah, for sure. Tim, thanks so much.

Tim Korthuis (32:21):

My pleasure, man.

Carlin Lutzer (32:32):

Well, that was my conversation with Tim Cor Teis, musical director of the Foothills, Philharmonic, and No, undoubtedly one of the best beards in Okotoks. It's also inspiring to hear from someone who's using their talents to build community and bring people together through music. Don't forget to check out Foothills philharmonic.com to join a choir, orchestra, or grab tickets for one of their incredible upcoming concerts. As always, thank you for listening to the Okotoks podcast. If you have a story that needs to be shared, something that highlights the people, passion and pride of our community, please reach out to me. I'd love to hear from you. Until next time, I'm Carlin Lutzer reminding you to stay kind, stay curious, and stay connected right here in Okotoks,

Announcer (33:21):

Another episode in the books. Thanks for rocking with us on the Okotoks Podcast, brought to you by Carlin Lutzer Real Estate.